After arriving at the carriage waiting area and waiting for about five minutes, I saw Reisir running toward us in the distance.
Yor, having successfully completed her errand, was also flying beside him.
They were moving quite fast, so the distance between us closed in an instant.
"The note..., hahk, heok... it was there..."
Reisir arrived in front of the carriage, gasping for breath as he confirmed that my prediction had been correct.
He looked utterly exhausted, bent over with one hand braced on his knee while wiping the sweat from his chin with the back of the other.
"Get in the carriage first. I need to tell the coachman the destination, so hand me the note."
When I held out my hand as I spoke, Reisir hesitated before handing over the paper he was holding.
I had only been trying to let him sit down and catch his breath quickly since he looked exhausted, but I was met with that sort of reaction.
My brow furrowed on its own.
"What's with that reaction? Do you think I'm going to tear up the note or something?"
"It's not that I suspect you, fuu... it's not."
I wondered whether the person who had barged in out of nowhere and grabbed an innocent person's collar was really in a position to say that.
It was absurd, but since now wasn't the time to point out every little thing, I decided to let it slide.
"If you're so uneasy about entrusting the note to someone else for even a moment, then you can just tell the coachman the location yourself."
Saying that, I was about to board the carriage first, but Reisir suddenly grabbed my arm to stop me.
There was a limit to how contradictory someone's words and actions could be.
He had just said he didn't suspect me, so what exactly was he doing now?
I glared at Reisir in dissatisfaction.
"I'm going alone. The note said that if I don't come alone, they can't guarantee Helga's safety... that's what it said."
Reisir explained his reasoning while panting heavily between words.
If the kidnapper wanted money and the problem could be solved simply by paying it, that would be one thing.
But they had done this to torment him, and he was planning to obediently follow the kidnapper's demands?
'He doesn't seriously think Tryggdrik will meekly let Helga go if he comes alone, does he?'
The suspicion came to mind instinctively, but I quickly shook my head.
There was no way the original protagonist was that naive.
If a group went together, he probably judged that he wouldn't know what rash actions Tryggdrik might take, making it less dangerous to go alone {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} instead.
But I had my own circumstances as well, so I couldn't back down.
"If you're going to say that, then you shouldn't be riding in a carriage with a coachman either."
"...Maybe it'd be better to go on horseback? It would probably be faster."
"Are you saying you're going to ride a horse through the city in your current state of mind? What if you hit someone?"
"......"
"Take the carriage and get off nearby the destination. I'll only accompany you that far."
In the first place, I had no intention of entering the place where Helga was being held together with Reisir.
After he entered the building first, I planned to wait a little before following after him.
So my statement that I would only accompany him part of the way wasn't a lie.
Whether he understood my thoughts or not, Reisir stared at my face with an indescribable expression before finally releasing my arm.
As soon as I boarded the carriage, I patted the seat beside me and called Yor over.
Once Yor climbed onto the seat next to me, Ríolíkin, who boarded after me, sat across from us.
"...You're taking him too?"
"I'm not taking him. Ríolíkin is following of his own accord."
Reisir, who had come over to tell the coachman the destination, was about to board the carriage when he saw Ríolíkin already seated inside and voiced his displeasure.
When I answered honestly, he narrowed his eyes and studied Ríolíkin's face.
He was probably trying to judge Ríolíkin's intentions.
Then he glanced at me from the corner of his eye, and after seeming to reach a conclusion, spoke to Ríolíkin.
"...Move further in."
"What? Ah, y-yes..."
Did he decide it wasn't a problem for him to come along since I hadn't gone out of my way to chase him off?
Instead of telling Ríolíkin to get out, Reisir simply told him to move over and took the seat across from me.
Only then did the carriage door close, and the coachman set the horses in motion.
"This is the note."
It seemed the reason he hadn't handed it over earlier was simply because he didn't want to reveal the destination.
Once the carriage began moving, Reisir handed me the note, and I accepted it and read through it.
The contents were very brief.
The address of a certain building, along with a line telling him to come alone without informing anyone.
And the initials "K.A."
'Even though this world uses Korean and Hangul as its writing system, why do they use English letters for signatures and initials...?'
I had already guessed that Tryggdrik was trying to frame me.
That was why the initials themselves occupied my thoughts more than the fact that they matched Karvaldr Austri's name.
As I once again found myself thinking, 'This world really is strange,' Reisir spoke in a serious tone.
"It looks like that bastard Tryggdrik is trying to frame you for this."
"I expected as much. Isn't that why I'm here right now? It would be troublesome for me if Tryggdrik got caught by the security forces, falsely confessed that I ordered him to do it, and then produced fabricated evidence. I'm here to deal with things before that happens."
"I..., I thought you were following because you were worried about me..."
"That's a misunderstanding."
I cut him off curtly and returned the note.
Reisir took it back and stared at it for a long while with a troubled expression.
Then, without warning, he tore the note into pieces and threw them out the window.
Since the note bearing the initials "K.A." could be used to frame me.
He must have judged it better to dispose of the false evidence immediately.
He said he didn't suspect me, but this was a remarkably straightforward way of proving it.
"I'm sorry for grabbing your collar earlier."
"I accept your apology. It's only natural that you suspected me. I've repeatedly told you I hated you and even bullied you last semester. If you hadn't earned anyone else's resentment, then naturally I would've been the first person to come to mind."
"But it was still wrong of me to do that without any concrete evidence."
Needlessly conscientious.
The reason Tryggdrik had started bullying him, kidnapped Helga for amusement, and even caused him to suspect me...
...all of it stemmed from Karvaldr's evil deeds from last semester, so he could've easily used that as justification and acted shamelessly about it.
"I was fortunate. If you hadn't come directly to me with your suspicions, I would've ended up taking the blame for ordering a kidnapping without even knowing what was happening. Compared to that, having my collar grabbed is nothing."
I didn't want to blame Reisir.
Even if the one who carried the original sin was Karvaldr rather than me, I had still hurt Reisir too.
And despite that, I couldn't even apologize to him.
What right did I have to receive an apology from him?
"......"
Perhaps because he had nothing left to say, Reisir fell silent.
I tore my gaze away from him and looked out the window.
After all, when you're stuck in a carriage with awkward company, there isn't much to do besides admire the scenery outside.
After a few minutes passed like that...
...I noticed the legs of the person sitting across from me trembling.
Without moving my head, I subtly shifted my eyes toward the seat opposite me and saw Reisir clenching and unclenching his fists, unable to hide his anxiety.
Reisir was also staring out the window, but unlike me, it didn't seem to be because he had nothing else to do.
Even though the carriage was already moving at a considerable speed, he was probably frustrated that it still felt too slow.
'To him, Helga is the daughter of the benefactor who took him in after he lost his family and hometown and had nowhere else to go, and also a childhood friend who was like family... It's no wonder he's this anxious.'
Suddenly, I remembered Reisir's reaction after Helga's death in the original work.
He had completely lost his mind.
Then, every so often, he would suddenly regain his senses and torture himself with the thought that he had once again failed to protect his family.
Helga wasn't dead now, so he hadn't lost his mind, but he was probably still blaming himself just the same.
No, perhaps he was drowning in even greater self-reproach than back then.
In the original story, Helga's death had been an accident, but this incident was aimed directly at him.
"Sigh... Tryggdrik won't do anything to Helga before you arrive anyway. So stop acting like time is running out."
In the end, unable to bear it any longer, I broke the silence first with a deep sigh.
At once, Reisir's expression twisted as he snapped back sharply.
"Don't talk so carelessly just because it's someone else's problem! How can you be so sure?!"
In web novels, female characters close to the protagonist are treated by readers as potential heroines.
Characters like that are usually rescued safely even when they're kidnapped.
And the kidnapper wasn't even someone powerful, just the son of a viscount family.
Then it was practically guaranteed.
'If a heroine candidate can't even be rescued safely, the readers will judge the protagonist incompetent.'
So rather than letting them be captured by some petty villain and suffer, authors would sooner kill them off in battle or through an accident.
Even though this kidnapping incident didn't exist in the original story.
Still, since this world was, both in name and in reality, a world inside a novel, it wouldn't stray from those rules.
But there was no way I could explain that to Reisir in a way he'd understand...
"Because it would hurt you more and make you feel more helpless if they showed you Helga already injured and then slowly broke her down in front of you, rather than simply showing you an injured hostage?"
"......!"
"They have to show you that the hostage is safe if they want you to stay obedient, don't they? Otherwise, they could pretend to negotiate and just attack you from behind."
"......"
"Maybe Helga's kidnapping itself is only bait, and they never intended to hurt her at all. No matter how much they fabricate things to make it look like I ordered it, if they injure her with their own hands, they won't be able to avoid criticism themselves."
"......"
I listed the sort of thoughts and actions a petty villain in a web novel would likely have.
Reisir's trembling legs gradually stilled, and his restless hands came to rest quietly on his thighs.
Seeing that, I secretly felt relieved...
"Are you trying to comfort me so I won't be anxious right now?"
Reisir, who had been staring at my face, suddenly threw out that question.
Although it was true, I couldn't admit it.
"Wh-what kind of nonsense is that! Don't misunderstand. I was just... annoyed because you kept shaking your leg... I mean, not because I was worried, but because it was distracting... Anyway, I was only stating my deductions. Whether you stay anxious or not has nothing to do with me, so do whatever you want."
"Ah, now I get it, Karvaldr, you're one of those."
"One of what...?"
"You know, a tsundere?"
"......"
No matter how "pseudo"-medieval this place was, it was still supposed to be a fantasy novel world with a Western setting, so I had no idea why a modern Japanese otaku term existed here.
